Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/866

 FAMILY

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FAMILY

have fiill control over the rearing and education of the children, subject only to such State super\-ision as is needed to prevent grave neglect of their welfare. Hence it follows that, generally speaking, and with due allowance for particular conditions, the State ex- ceeds its authority when it provides for the material wants of the child, removes him from parental influ- ence, or specifies the school that he must attend. As a consequence of these concepts and ideals, the Chris- tian family in historj' has proved itself immeasurably superior to the non-Christian family. It has exhib- ited greater fidelity between husband and wife, greater reverence for the parents by the children, greater pro- tection of the weaker members by the stronger, and in general a more thorough recognition of the dignity and rights of all within its circle. Its chief glorj- is undoubtedly its effect upon the position of woman. Notwithstaniiiiig the disabilities — for the most part with regard to property, education, and a practically recognized double standard of morals — under which the Christian woman has suffered, she has attained to a height of dignity, respect, and authority for which we shall look in vain in the conjugal society outside of Christianity. The chief factor in this improvement has been the Christian teaching on chastity, conjugal equality, the sacredness of motherhood, and the super- natural end of the family, together with the Christian model and ideal of family life, the Holy Family at Nazareth.

The contention of some writers that the Chiu-ch's teaching and practice concerning virginity and celi- bacy, make for the degradation and deterioration of the family, not only springs from a false and perverse v-iew of these practices, but contradicts the facts of historj'. Although she has always held virginity in higher honour than marriage, the Chiu-ch has never sanctioned the extreme view, attributed to some as- cetical ^^Titers, that marriage is a mere concession to the flesh, a sort of tolerated carnal indulgence. In her eyes the marriage rite has ever been a sacrament, the married state a holy state, the family a Divine institu- tion, and family life the normal condition for the great majority of mankind. Indeed, her teaching on vir- ginity, and the spectacle of thousands of her sons and daughters exemplifying that teaching, have in every age constituted a most effective exaltation of chastity in general, and therefore of chastity within as well as without the family. Teaching and example have combined to convince the wedded, not less than the unwedded, that purity and restraint are at once de- sirable and practically possible. To-day, as always, it is precisely in those commimities where virginity is most honoured that the ideal of the family is highest, and its relations purest.

D.\NGEES FOR THE F.oiiLY. — Among these are the exaltation of the individual by the State at the ex- pense of the family, which has been going on since the Reformation (cf . the Rev. Dr. Thwing, in Bliss, '' Ency- clopedia of Social Reform"), and the modern facility of divorce (see Divorce), which may be traced to the same source. The greatest offender in the latter re- spect is the United States, but the tendency seems to be towards easier methods in most of the other coun- tries in which divorce is allowed. Legal authoriza- tion and popular approval of the dissolution of the marriage bond, not only breaks up existing families, but encourages rash marriages, and produces a laxer view of the obligation of conjugal fidelity. Another danger is the deliberate limitation of the number of children in a family. This practice tempts parents to overlook the chief end of th(^ family, and to regard their imion a.s a mere means of mutual gratification. Furthermore, it leads to a lessening of the capacity of .self-sacrifice in all the members of the family. Closely connected with these two evils of divorce and arti- ficial restriction of births, is the general laxity of opin- ion with regard to sexual immorality. Among its

causes are the diminished influence of religion, the ab- sence of religious and moral training in the schools, and the seemingly feebler emphasis laid upon the heinousness of the sin of unchastity by those whose moral training has not been under Catholic auspices. Its chief effects are disinclination to marrj-, marital in- fidelity, and the contraction of diseases which produce domestic unhappiness and sterile families.

The idle and frivolous lives of the women, both wives and daughters, in many wealthy families is also a menace. In the position which they hold, the mode of life which they lead, and the ideals which they cherish, many of these women remind us somewhat of the hetwrce of classical Athens. For they enjoy great freedom, and exercise great influence over the husband and father, and their chief function seems to be to entertain him, to enliance his social prestige, to minister to his vanity, to dress well, and to reign as social queens. They have emancipated themselves from any serious self-sacrifice on behalf of the husband or the family, while the husband has likewise declared his independence of any strict construction of the duty of conjugal fidelity. The bond between them is not sufficiently moral and spiritual, and is excessively sensual, social, and scsthetic. And the evil example of this conception of family life extends far beyond those who are able to put it into practice. Still an- other danger is the decline of family authority among all classes, the diminished obedience and respect im- posed upon and exhibited by chiklren. Its conse- quences are imperfect discipline in the family, defec- tive moral character in the children, and manifold unhappiness among all.

Finally, there is the danger, physical and moral, threatening the family owing to the widespread and steadily mcreasing presence of women in industry. In 1900 the number of females sixteen years of age and over engaged in gainful occupations in the United States, was 4,833,630, which was more than double the number so occupied in ISSO, and which constituted 20 per cent of the whole niunber of females above sixteen years in the coimtry, whereas the num- ber at work in ISSO formed only 16 per cent of the same division of the female popiilation. In the cities of America two women out of every seven are bread- winners (see Special Report of the U. S. Census, "Women at Work"). This condition implies an in- creased proportion of married women at work as wage earners, an increased proportion of women who are less capable physically of undertaking the burdens of family life, a smaller proportion of marriages, an in- crease in the proportion of women who, owing to a delusive idea of independence, are disinclined to marry, and a weakening of family bonds and domestic au- thority. " In 1S90, 1 married woman in 22 was a bread-winner; in 1900, 1 in IS" (ibid.). Perhaps the most striking evil result of married women in indus- trj- is the high death-rate among infants. For in- fants under one year the rate in 11300 over the whole United States, was 165 per 1000, but it was 305 in Fall River, where the proportion of married women at work is greatest. As the supreme causes of all these dangers to the family are the decay of religion and the growth of materialistic views of life, so the future of the family will depend upon the extent to which these forces can be checked. And experience seems to show that there can be no jiermanent mitldle ground between the materialistic ideal of divorce, so easy that the marital union will be terminable at the will of the parties, and the Catholic ideal of marriage absolutely indissoluble.

In ail.Iitinn to the authorities cited in the text, the following deser\-e jjarticular mention: Devas, Studies in Family Life (Lomlon. 1SS6); Riche. The Family, tr. Sadlier (New York, 18961; CouLANGE.s, The Ancient City. tr. Small (Boston, 1901); BosANquET, The Family (London, 19061; Thwing. The Family (Boston. 1S87); Buss, Encyclopedia of Social Reform (New York, 1907); Stockl in Kirchenlerikon; La grande encyclopidie ,' Perrone, De Matrimonio Christiana